Seeing JailBlazer's thread about Lupe Fiasco being underrated and unheard of by fans of "rappers" like Soulja Boy and what not, it made me realize just how weak hip-hop has become. (I put "rapper" in quotation marks because Soulja Boy is farrrr from a rapper. Just a teenage who invented a dance that I could have come up with in an hour, that's it). So hip-hop fans, I ask you this: How do you feel hip hop is doing right now?

I personally think it's dying. Not fully dead, because there are still many great rappers out there, you just have to find them. They're overshadowed by the Soulja Boys and 50 Cents and Rick Ross'. What I think is wrong with hip hop is the fact that nowadays, money sells. May sound weird, but it's true - the more you brag about your money, the more money you make. Either that, or the more women you have shaking their booties in your videos, or the more champagne you're pouring on the floor, or the more bullets you've taken. All that stuff is what sells in today's world of hip hop, and it's sad.

Popular yet rappers like Common, Lupe Fiasco, Talib Kweli, they're looked at as "boring" by a large portion of hip-hop listeners. Nobody cares about the lyrics anymore, it's all about the dough and the women and the violence, and rappers like 50 Cent promote this, which is why I don't like him. He sells records, but not the right way. Teaching 13 year olds to live the life of a gangster and listen to music about "bustin' a cap in a mofo" or hustling by any means? It's a disgrace. It almost seems like the more times you get shot, the more records you'll sell. There's hardly any true talent in hip-hop anymore, just people who can talk about how much money and women they have and make it rhyme.

"I Get Money" and "Straight to the Bank" and "Like Money", these are the kinds of songs that are killing hip-hop, yet people look at it as good because money is good, and the songs have good beats. Ever heard the lyrics to those songs? "They call me the cakeman, the strawberry shake man." "When I made 50 mil, Em got paid. When I made 60 mil, Dre got paid. When I made 80 mil, Jimmy got paid. I ain't even got to rap now, life is made. I ain't even got to rap, I'm filthy rich mayne." You ain't even got to? Of course not, you're rich, why rap? Just talk about your bank rolls and women and make it rhyme - bam, you'll go platinum. That's half the reason I like Kanye so much - he's real. He raps about real things, things that matter, not just money or women, it's rare for him to rap about that to the point where the song is garbage. His lyrics actually mean something.

You even don't have to do much nowadays to get signed. What did Soulja Boy have to do? Make up a silly dance and bam he's produced the most popular song on the planet? If he tried that 10 years ago I'm pretty sure it would have been MUCH harder to get a record deal with stuff like that. What did Rich Boy have to do? Just make a song about rims and bam he's the BET Rookie of the Year? What did Hurricane Chris do? Make a song called "Ay Bay Bay" and he's suddenly a popular "rapper"? For God's sake, he claims he runs the South. It's pathetic. Wtf is an Ay Bay Bay, some type of mating call? "Ay Bay Bay, come give me some head." Oh yeah, that's really helping hip hop.

At the 2007 BET Hip Hop Awards, David Banner said "If somebody asked me what's wrong with hip-hop today, I'd say there ain't a damn thing wrong with hip-hop but bootleggers and Limewire." Agree, or disagree? I disagree highly. There's much more wrong with hip-hop than that, and thank God Nas addressed that by calling his album "Hip Hop Is Dead".

Is Hip-Hop dead? I wouldn't exactly say it's dead. Is it dying and in need of rejuvination and real rapping talent? Hell yes.

Corporate America is the only reason pure Hip-Hop artistry is dying.
I'm not gonna name the guilty people in the industry.

Did you hear about him winning a recent celebrity chess tournament? I thought that was pretty cool. Anyways, Hip-Hop isn't in good shape at the moment, but it's become like any other genre where the great artists are underground--with the exception of a few--and the crap artists are what's played on top 40 radio.

Did you hear about him winning a recent celebrity chess tournament? I thought that was pretty cool. Anyways, Hip-Hop isn't in good shape at the moment, but it's become like any other genre where the great artists are underground--with the exception of a few--and the crap artists are what's played on top 40 radio.

So bad I can't even listen to the radio anymore... It hurts my ears.....

Damn. Come one people, get over the fact that hip hop is going to make shit songs. Every year its the same, "WTF is this Shoulda Lean?", How Do I Lean and rock wit it?", "Soulja Tell Who?" and every year people complain. Try looking on the upside of rap, and praise people like Lupe, Nas, and Common for doing their thing. Ever think that people complaining about how rap is these days is whats tearing it down?

no matter how the commercial stuff sound hip-hop will never be dead to me. nas isnt dead to me, rakim isnt dead to me, talib kweli isnt dead to me, a tribe called quest isnt dead to me, i can go on and on and on. but man tho these guys thats out are just terrible tho. the problem is that these artist are prostitutes, they are just in it for the money. they dont do it for the love of hip-hop. but my thing is this u cant blame the artist for how hip hop/rap is. i blame the record executives. i blame the people who owns mtv, bet, and all the radio people around the country. lets keep it real u know these people who are actually running hip hop they know this stuff is trash, but they go after these artist because thats what sell.

when u think about it nothing have changed. its kinda been like this for the last 7-8 years. artist was always talkin about how hip hop is getting trash from the dead prez track "hip hop" and even as far back as common's "i use to love her". theres been alot of artist that was saying this but it took one of the best hip hop artist of all time in nas for people to take notice and really take a look at the game. theres so much youtube stuff on this issue. but in my mind hip-hop will never be dead but i cant blame people for sayin hip-hop is dead tho.

Know, the media is just playing what the majority of people want to listen to, which is catchy choruses and beats. They want to be able to dance along with the song at a club. They dont care about lyrics or substance.